An injured California gray whale was swimming out to sea Saturday after being shot with a machine gun off the western tip of Washington state, officials said.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Kelly Parker said five people believed to be members of the Makah Tribe shot and harpooned the whale Saturday morning. The extent of the whale's injuries were not immediately known.

Tribe members were being held by the Coast Guard but had not been charged, said Mark Oswell, a spokesman for the law enforcement arm of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

A preliminary report said the whale was shot with a .50-caliber machine gun, Oswell said.

Coast Guard officials created a 1,000-yard safety zone around the injured whale, which was shot about a mile east of Neah Bay in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The whale had begun heading to sea Saturday afternoon, Oswell said.

Although the tribe has subsistence fishing rights to kill whales, Oswell said preliminary information indicates the whale may have been shot illegally.

"We allow native hunts for cultural purposes. However, this does not appear to be of that nature so far," he said.

The Makah Tribe has more than 1,000 members and is based in Neah Bay.

A call to tribal officials was not immediately returned on Saturday. Tribal Chairman Ben Johnson told The Seattle Times that the tribe has been seeking an exemption from the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act so that it could take up to five gray whales per year. However, Johnson said the tribe had not yet secured that exemption for a new hunt.

“If a culture involves .50 caliber machine guns it must be a very polite culture”

I lived in Alaska for many, many years. The thing that always got me about “native culture” hunting and gathering is/was how the natives will scream about their right to hunt, fish and gather becuase of tradition, but will use every mondern method to make it easier. It is all B.S.

"I lived in Alaska for many, many years. The thing that always got me about native culture hunting and gathering is/was how the natives will scream about their right to hunt, fish and gather becuase of tradition, but will use every mondern method to make it easier. It is all B.S."

It is their tradition. The use of improved tools does not change that fact. When they don't eat what they take, then the foundation of the tradition is gone and you'll have a point.

"So you don't have a problem with Michael Vick because dog fighting is part of his "culture"?"

Irrelevant. The whaling was traditional in both Japan, and with these natives. The purpose was food and other utilitarian reasons. The natives had a treaty with the US since 1855 to ocntinue the hunt, which they suspended when the whales became endangered. Once the whales were off the list, they sought to hunt them again. Looks like these 5 were just fed up with the BS from the anti-hunting crowd and the 9th circus.

Dog fighting is forcing animals to kill each other to entertain humans. It's not comparable to food.

I recently saw a show on the Travel Channel by Andrew Zimmern. He went to Alaska to show the native cuisine. I have to say that it was the most disgusting food I have ever seen.... And I’ve eaten chicken and pigeon heads, chicken feet, duck tongue and jaw, and beef tendons. When I saw the Alaskan food I actually gagged.

One of the things was whale fat placed in a jar. The jar was shaken until the oils separated. They then let the remaining fat and oil sit in the jar for weeks until it was ripe. They put it on everything. They also ate deserts that looks like about 95% lard mixed with berries and sugar.

If they want to adhere to tradition, then they should hunt with spears.
I suspect that Native Americans in the lower 48 would have eventually decimated the buffalo with just horses and rifles. Sorta like fishing with dynamite — or whaling with artillery (not that a 50 cal is artillery, I’m referring to the gun-fired harpoons with explosive heads).

22
posted on 09/09/2007 7:52:58 AM PDT
by Solitar
("My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them." -- Barry Goldwater)

Im not one of these Peta geeks or wack jobs- but this does not make sense. A 50 cal although formidable is not a whale gun. It would be like becuase my culture has involved deer hunting since I was young to go out with a bb gun or 22 cal hunting. Sure if real real lucky the animal might go down. Most likely its just gonna get pussed up because of wounds and die from complications. They should have just went to the trading post and bought a can of salmon and sat around smoking the friggin peace pipe. Stupid attempt with stupid results. The indians lost in this and the whale. Mostly the whale.

You are correct, sir. I don’t like their “culture”. Some “cultures” engage in pedophilia, but we have laws against it. A “culture” is not necessarily equal to others. This is the truth, but you might not like it.

Sure if real real lucky the animal might go down. Most likely its just gonna get pussed up because of wounds and die from complications.

You're right about that. This reminds me of a documentary which included the fate of an Orca or Killer Whale which had been shot with a common caliber hunting rifle. Eventually (weeks?) it died from complications.

26
posted on 09/09/2007 8:15:07 AM PDT
by Solitar
("My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them." -- Barry Goldwater)

They line speared it first. The traditional way is repeated spearing afterwords. The 50 was used instead of the repeated spearing, because it's much quicker. They didn't finish and retrieve the whale, because the coast guard interfered. Notice the whale died shortly after the coast guard came.

Lock up Geoduck and Crowbar, seize their boats, and charge every Makah with conspiracy; that’s just of starters. These guys really make me sick - they fretted and moaned until they got the OK for their last whale, talking a good game about respect for the prey, bringing back tribal pride, so on and so forth, but when they finally drug the poor creature back to the beach, guys were doing backflips off of it. They cut it up so people could throw the meat away in the privacy of their own homes, and let the rest rot. One old timer got run out of town when she complained. My dad’s 1/4 Arapaho so I’ve got nothing against Indians, but some of those toothless drunks up in Neah Bay might make you think that Phil Sheridan was right.

You be wrong. They hunted the buffalo for food, lodging, clothes, tools and furnature. Their spiritual culture considered the animals sacred and they didn't kill them for the sake of killing.

Indians are humans -- their individual and tribal selfishness would have overwhelmed their considerations of the animals being sacred and they would have exploited their commons. Even without white Americans involved beyond being a source of rifles and ammo, the Indians would have hunted the buffalo (for food, lodging, clothes, tools and furniture) until there were too few buffalo to support them. That is the all too common population boom during followed by a crash after they decimate their prey.

31
posted on 09/09/2007 8:37:08 AM PDT
by Solitar
("My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them." -- Barry Goldwater)

We live along the Upper Yukon and Indians here ignore everything the feds & state attempts to tell them concerning fish & game. They hunt like they always have, that means no closed season. They use to move seasonally to harvest fish & game but feds took their kids all off them until they started living in permanent villages. Had something to do with land ownership & taxes.

They figure it was the whites that came into their country and screwed it all up. You won’t find 50 bucks of white mans food in any of their cabins, except maybe booze. They really still live off what the land & river provides. Why they are so sensitive to enviro changes as they starve when it occurs. Most us Whites are pretty ignorant about Indians until you have spent a year as only white boy in a village; they you kinda figure them out, see all the good rather than just the bad.

Bottomline is I kinda like how they refuse to adhere to govt law. Without voluntary compliance, govt can’t control anybody. Maybe we could learn a little from them Indians.

"Indians are humans -- their individual and tribal selfishness would have overwhelmed their considerations of the animals being sacred and they would have exploited their commons."

That's not true in general. They were more, or less aware of the problems with the commons and took care to farm and use their resources wisely. The fact that they noted the problems caused by the widespread slaughter of the buffalo proves that.

Our Indians in East Texas have given up on harpooning whales and have gone back to the old habits of wanting gambling casino's. We are trying to stop them and force them back into hunting whales and drinking booze. We cannot allow Texas Indians to get back into their casino ways. Who knows what would happen next?

At least when they were killing whales, we were giving them food stamps, housing, education, and free medical care. If they start fending for themselves, they may make their own way into the world. Jeeessshh!

“That’s not true in general. They were more, or less aware of the problems with the commons and took care to farm and use their resources wisely. The fact that they noted the problems caused by the widespread slaughter of the buffalo proves that.”

That varied from tribe to tribe. Some were far better and more efficient than others. Those that used the tactics of driving buffalo herds off cliffs for example, killed far more buffalo than they could make use of, resulting in tremendous waste.

44
posted on 09/09/2007 11:33:20 AM PDT
by neutronsgalore
(Nature, getting rid of Muslims one tsunami at a time.)

Although I do not condone what has happened here with this whale, in all honesty, I read more than a few years ago that the Pacific Grey Whale has recovered and is in fact back to the numbers of before it was endangered. Not a good thing but one whale is not a catastrophe.

I suspect that Native Americans in the lower 48 would have eventually decimated the buffalo with just horses and rifles.

Not likely, they hunted for food, although they used everything. If they killed all the Bison, what would they eat? The white market hunters killed just for the skins, and sometimes the yahoos on the railroads killed just for fun.

If the Indians numbers increased to the point where the wild Bison populations were threatened, they'd probably have done what other peoples did to other ungulates, domesticate them. They are pretty much like large furry cows anyway.

47
posted on 09/09/2007 11:51:55 AM PDT
by El Gato
("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)

Shot up to 21 times? With a .50 BMG rifle. I’d say that .50 BMG is not enough gun for gray whale. Once they’d harpooned the beast, they were probably trying to put it out of its misery and/or get it to stop fighting. Sounds like they need a bigger boat, or more boats, the latter is probably the way it was done in the Old Days.

49
posted on 09/09/2007 11:57:14 AM PDT
by El Gato
("The Second Amendment is the RESET button of the United States Constitution." -- Doug McKay)

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